May 11 , 2004 — As we saw in the segment, "Why Memories Last," Alan learns from Larry Cahill that it appears women and men process emotional memories in different ways.
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Historically, most scientists disregarded the distinctions between men and women's brains. It was assumed they functioned in the same manner. Though some people are threatened by the notion of biological differences between the sexes -- as we strive in our culture to make all things equal between the sexes-- there is increasing evidence that women's and men's brains do, in fact, operate differently. According to Cahill, we need to reevaluate our presumptions.

	"The assumption was that the sex of our subjects didn't really matter... the data tells us, well, yes it does."

"In the last couple of years, we have started to pretty much get slapped in the face with the realization that we were making the false assumption, at least in the human subject work," Cahill said. "The assumption was that the sex of our subjects didn't really make much difference, didn't really matter. And the data have started to tell us, well, yes it does."

	While watching the same emotionally arousing event, different parts of women's and men's brains light up.

Cahill has scanned the brains of men and women while they watched emotionally arousing events. The results show that typically for men only the right amygdala is activated, whereas in women, the left amygdala is activated. Previous research suggests that the right brain processes the general gist of events while the left side focuses on the details. This split could account for discrepancies between the way men and women recall emotional fights or events.

Physical differences between women and men -- sexual dimorphism -- are usually quite obvious. More recently however, using PET and MRI scans to look into the brain, scientists are uncovering the less obvious ways in which biology determines differences between the sexes.
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